News
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded St. Luke’s Miners Campus a $1 million grant to help combat the opioid crisis.
St. Luke’s was one of 80 grantees in the country and one of only five organizations in the state of Pennsylvania to receive the award. These funds, part of HRSA’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, will be disbursed over three years to strengthen rural communities’ capacity to provide needed substance use disorder prevention, treatment and recovery services and to build the evidence base for interventions that are effective in rural settings.
“As the region’s leading health care provider, St. Luke’s plays a pivotal role in the fight against opioid use disorder,” said St. Luke’s Miners President Wendy Lazo. “We are grateful for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s financial support of this important, collective effort to improve the health and well-being of our community.”
According to government data, the St. Luke’s Miners Campus patient population is at high risk for substance use disorder, and the prevalence of opioid use disorder, opioid overdoses and opioid overdose mortality are all higher than national rates. Stigma, transportation barriers, and treatment cost prevent most patients from accessing resources needed for recovery.
The need for additional resources was established by St. Luke’s Miners Campus’s Community Health Needs Assessment, which also identified consortium partners, including the Panther Valley and Tamaqua Area school districts, Child Development Inc. (Head Start) and Schuylkill County’s VISION, among others.
St. Luke’s Miners Campus has established a steering committee—consisting of certified recovery specialists and rural partners such as rural health center staff, local treatment and recovery centers and grassroots and faith-based organizations—that will guide all planning efforts and will be instrumental in disseminating prevention, treatment and recovery information on services and resources.
“St. Luke’s Miners Memorial Hospital serves as a vital part of the community and helps to provide quality care to our residents,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (PA-09). “This important funding will expand opioid prevention and treatment service and help residents move towards recovery.”
* This project is supported by HRSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this release do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 34 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 263 residents and fellows. St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke’s hospitals. St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.
